Therapy
by CaseyBensonNovak
Summary: It's time for Olivia to stop living like a bachelor. She has a family now. But it may take a third party to make her realize what means most to her.


"This is ridiculous. I am not going in there!"

Casey folded her arms across her chest. "Olivia, we agreed that we would do this. Would you rather be at home not speaking to each other, or somewhere where we are forced to speak? I already told you. This is the only hope for our marriage. I'm tired of the fighting, the screaming. I'm tired of going to bed in tears and you staying at work just to avoid me. We knew early on that we would end up at this stage, Olivia. We were doomed, given our line of work. It is just.." The attorney bit her lip. "Happening sooner rather than later," she finished.

Olivia sighed. "I'm going to listen to some overpriced hack tell me how to love my family and criticize everything I do. But whatever. You get everything you want anyway."  
"Oh, yes, I'm a perfectly spoiled princess!" Casey muttered, knocking on the door that read _Dr. Berkeman. Family and Marriage Counselor_. Hearing their invitation to come in, Casey followed Olivia inside. "Doctor," Casey said, greeting the aging therapist, who they knew only from the multiple phone calls to him.

"You must be the Bensons." He consulted his file. "Casey and Olivia," he said, shaking each of their hands in turn. "Please, take a seat. Can I get you something to drink?"

"No thank you," Olivia said. Casey shook her head politely. They took their seats on the leather sofa, but remained on opposite ends of the furniture.

Dr. Berkeman glanced from one to the other and back again. "Right. So, you said on the phone that you are on the brink of divorce and that you felt this was your only option?"

"You said that?" Olivia demanded, turning to Casey.

Casey sighed. "Yes. I said that," she admitted. "Olivia, I'm not going to lie and pretend everything is okay."

"Which mirrors your wife's sentiments," the balding therapist remarked, again consulting his file. "She seems to think you have some…issues?"

"Issues?" Casey asked. "I think we are past issues. I think we are at the stage where we are about to blow. Think of our marriage like an overheated cupcake about to blow up inside of the oven of stress. It's going to be very messy."

Olivia scoffed. She was still irritated with the fact that Casey had dragged her to shrink, threatening to divorce her if she didn't go. She may have worn the pants in the bedroom, but it was clear that the state of their marriage was Casey's territory.

"What sort of issues?" the doctor asked, looking to Olivia for an answer first. It was clear that he wanted her input. "Olivia, can you think of some specific examples?"

"I can think of a myriad of examples, Doctor. Perhaps our biggest issue is that Casey doesn't understand my job. She is the one who told me, when we got married, that my job would not come between us. She works with the unit, so she knows better than anyone that I have to work long hours. She is under the impression that I am avoiding her, and that is simply not the case."

"Casey?"

Casey sighed. "Olivia seems to think her job is the issue. It is the principle, not the problem. Yes, I told her at the altar that her profession would never affect us. Like she said, I'm the unit's prosecutor, so I know what the job entails. But now I'm more than the ADA assigned to SVU. I'm a wife and a mother. I fall asleep alone six out of seven nights, and when you need the one you love to confide in, hug, and so forth, it is very depressing when they are not around. And I'm raising our baby all by myself."

"I take care of her!" Olivia interjected.

"How? When you're home for two hours out of the week? Olivia, I'm the one who feeds her, bathes her, kisses her goodnight. I'm the one who tells her she's loved and that she's not alone. Where are you? At work. Where you always are."

The doctor clicked his pen to signal them to stop yelling at each other. "Okay, so you said baby. What age?"

"Newborn," Casey answered. "She was born three months ago. I have had to forsake much of my own career to take care of her. I am not complaining, mind you. However, Olivia is out there with no ill effects on her status as a senior detective, and I'm the one at home. I might as well be a housewife. What's the point of being married if you're a single mother?"

"Uh-huh," the doctor noted, jotting a few things down in his notepad. "Olivia, what do you have to say to Casey's concerns?" he asked.

Olivia scratched her head, sighing. "Casey, I never asked you to give up your career! We knew going into this that my job was going to be the harder of the two to deal with. You can ask for time off. You have people who can fill in for you. We are already short-staffed, and if I ask for time off, I might as well quit. They need me then and there or not at all. You know that. You said you understood!"

"I do understand that, Olivia! But what I don't understand is why you don't want to be at home with your family. Are you telling me, all those times you've come home at six in the morning, you could not have left a few hours earlier and had Amanda or Nick work? I'm not asking you not to be on call. I'm asking you to actually spend time in your side of the bed."

"And you dragged me to a therapist to tell me you want me at home more?"

Casey stood quickly. "First of all," she said, her anger mounting, "I did not drag you anywhere. I asked you to come here and help me talk this through, because when I talk to you at home, you tune me out! And if you want to leave, there's the door!"

"And I should leave?" Olivia demanded, as she, too, stood. "I have given up more than you realize, Casey. Before we came out, I was buried deep in the closet."

"We're going to go over this again," Casey muttered, rolling her eyes.

"Because you cannot seem to comprehend it! You have a freaking IQ of 170, and you still cannot comprehend that I came out of the closet for you! Do I get any credit for that?"

"Oh, well, I didn't realize I was so out," Casey retorted. The therapist tried to interject, but seeing the glare Casey shot him, he sat back down, realizing that their arguing could give him an insight into their problem. "In case you've forgotten, Detective," she said, her voice loaded with venom, "before you lured me into your bed, I was with men. Men, as in the presence of a penis. When you came out, no one was shocked. Everyone figured that anyway. When I came out, I was a fucking black sheep in my office. My coworkers stared, and I didn't want to know what they were thinking when they asked me how I could be gay. So go ahead, Olivia. Go ahead and bitch that you're suffering a wounded ego, because it almost destroyed my career."

"If you would have told me this outside of an expensive leather office, I would have understood!"  
"I did tell you! I tell you every time we have this fight, and you don't listen! You don't care about my feelings or our baby's. All that matters to you is your badge and your job. And lately, Olivia, I'm wondering why it took me so long to realize that!"

The doctor finally interrupted, clearing his throat loudly. "So what I'm getting here is that Casey feels underappreciated, but so do you, Olivia. You have both made sacrifices, but you each feel like the other doesn't care. I am also sensing a tension that could easily be cut with a knife. Pardon me for asking, but how many times a day do you two have sex?"

"A day?" Casey demanded. "How many times per each twenty four hour period? Well, Doctor, I don't know. Maybe once for a fifteen minute period when Olivia graces us with her presence. I give her what she wants, she gets off, and conveniently leaves again." The attorney turned when she realized Olivia was laughing. "You think this is funny?" she cried.

Olivia shook her head, finally calming herself enough to speak a coherent sentence. "Yes, I do. I find it hilarious that a therapist just questioned my sex life. Casey, listen to me. You feel underappreciated and unloved. I understand that, sweetie, I really do. I know I haven't been home enough. I know you're stressed from work and the baby, but please understand that I'm only trying to keep the world safe for you two. One less perp off the street is one less danger to my wife and child."

"Olivia, Casey said you only want sex. Do you think you're trying to live as if you're still unmarried and enjoying casual encounters? You told me on the phone that that was your life before you married Casey."

The detective rubbed her temple in frustration. "I don't know. I suppose that is a valid conclusion, but it was never a conscious decision. I'm not used to having someone with me for more than a night. I'm certainly not used to someone needing me. I've never had to take care of anyone but myself. I suppose that makes me a cold-hearted animal."

"No." Casey shook her head. "Olivia, you're nothing of the sort. I knew at the outset of this partnership that you would need to get used to being with someone for a long period of time. I think we rushed into things. We had our first date and then you proposed and then we got married. All of that happened within a month, and we had no time to adjust to each stage of the relationship."

"Casey, we've known each other for ten years. I think that entitled us to get married so quickly."

Casey moved closer to her. "But there's a difference between being coworkers and best friends, and being a married couple with a child. Olivia, I can't adjust on my own. We're two halves of a whole, two peas in a pod. I need you. Our baby needs you. We have to go on but..we can't go on like this."

Olivia checked the time. "Well, unfortunately, our time is up." Casey expected her to change the subject, but then, she did the unthinkable. "Doctor, same time next week?"

He, too, seemed stunned. Dropping his pen, which had been busily keeping with their every word, he shook hands with both of them. "Next week," he affirmed. "Good luck."

"Thank you," Casey answered. When they were alone, Casey looked at her wife. "Do you really mean it?" she asked. "Next week?"

Olivia lifted the redhead's chin, kissing her softly. "We need to learn trust and appreciation for each other. I especially have a lot of work to do to make it up to you. This is a new day, Casey. From now on, I will put you and our child above everything."

The detective's phone rang. She hit ignore and tossed it gently onto the car seat. "You're not going to answer it?" Casey asked.

Olivia shook her head. "Amanda and Nick can deal with it. A new day, remember? Besides." She brushed a lock of scarlet hair out of Casey's emerald eyes. "My family needs me tonight," she murmured, pulling the attorney to her for a passionate kiss.

**Author's note: Please read and review. This idea has been brewing in my mind for some time. Should I make it a one-shot or multi-chaptered? Thanks for reading.**


End file.
